Revival, the perpetually busy restaurant from chef Thomas Boemer and front of house master Nick Rancone, will open its third location inside the new Keg & Case complex — but it won’t be serving its most popular dish there.
The restaurant takes the place of what was originally announced as a second Hola Arepa location. That team bowed out when the opportunity to open Hai Hai came to them in Northeast.
“It’s a Revival concept,” Rancone confirmed to Eater. “But if you said that it was a fried chicken restaurant, you would be incorrect.” That’s right. There will be no fried chicken inside Keg & Case (no word on why not). So, what does that mean? A burger stand? Biscuits for days? Details are still fuzzy, though note that Revival is known for its Southern fare, pies, and barbecue as well. The restaurant will open sometime in mid- to late summer.
In addition to Revival and In Bloom, Keg & Case will include shops from Sweet Science, Five Watt Coffee , cheese from O’Cheeze, Forest to Fork wild foods market from the Gentleman Forager, and Clutch Brewery.
This is the second restaurant in the Schmidt Brewery on St. Paul’s West 7th Street from the duo, including fine dining, In Bloom. Revival first opened in the original Corner Table location at 4257 Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis in 2015. Opening buzz over phenomenal fried chicken, a decadent burger and heavenly pies never died down. The original spot continues to sport long lines and a cross section of Minneapolis diners rare in the city. A second location at 525 Selby Avenue opened in December of 2016 and was immediately crowded. The relentless obsession over the crispy, juicy Southern-fried chicken that Boemer recreated from his childhood in the Carolinas hasn’t let up since.
The St. Paul location added a full bar and barbecue that only deepened the Cities’ love of the restaurants.